ATLANTA — Last week’s firing of Holly LaBerge is the latest example of the disruption at the state ethics commission she headed. The question now is whether the selection of her replacement will be used as an opportunity to put the tiny agency on a path to relevance or be squandered.

For more than a decade, there has been a battle between Georgia’s political parties over how that fundamental right should be regulated.

Republicans have made the path to the ballot box more challenging by passing laws that require voters to show photo ID cards, among other things. They maintain these restrictions are necessary to prevent election fraud.

Democrats contend that the roadblocks are intended to discourage blacks, latinos and other minorities – who tend to vote Democratic – from exercising their right to cast a ballot.

Whoever is elected to fill the Tax Commissioner’s seat in November can expect to have at least a little less autonomy in that office than Kay Allen was able to exercise over her more that 20 years at the helm.

Commissioners have already moved to set in place new agreements with Grovetown and Harlem to provide tax collection services at the same rate Allen was charging -- 2 percent. The difference is that money will now go directly to the county’s general fund, whereas Allen had been pocketing those fees from the cities, averaging more than $30,000 each year in extra salary.

In the ongoing debate over skyrocketing healthcare costs in Georgia, proponents of medical malpractice reform continue to point to the practice of so-called “defensive medicine” as the culprit behind the increase in costs across the healthcare system (“Georgia can lead in savings with plan to eliminate medical malpractice” – Sept. 3). Doctors, they contend, regularly perform expensive and unnecessary medical tests in order to avoid malpractice suits related to their treatment – or lack thereof.

The famous quote by George Santayana, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it” is as relevant today as it ever was.

We are approaching the 13th anniversary of the most horrendous terrorist attack on American soil in the name of Islamic Jihad. Sept. 11, 2001 was not unexpected. After all, there were numerous terrorist attacks against Americans and American interests abroad for decades.